So we'll hide the link in a single word of the second paragraph of our shiatty, uninformative blog post about it, and not mention why it's a legal battle. (The actual source)

For those interested...When he bought the building, the only lease he received was from 1977 and that when it expired, the occupancy became month to month. As such, he was exercising his right to terminate the lease.

Also, she wasn't even on the lease in 1977. The lease was in the name of the husband's first wife.

1. It's not a three level apartment. It's a third floor walk-up. A 2 bedroom apartment.2. She's not a real Afghan princess. Afghanistan hasn't been ruled by a royal family in a long, long time, and even if there were any recognized monarchy living in exile, they would have been reinstated by the US after we took down the Taliban.3. I once knew an Omani princess. She was a total sweetheart. That country has a bajillion actual princesses.

Is this just the landlord trying to get rid of a person who has low rent because of rent control? Some other article said her place is the only residential unitin the building. And there was something about the lease being in her dead husband's name and his first wife, but she's like the second wife or not on the lease or something?

lilfry14:Is this just the landlord trying to get rid of a person who has low rent because of rent control? Some other article said her place is the only residential unitin the building. And there was something about the lease being in her dead husband's name and his first wife, but she's like the second wife or not on the lease or something?

Even though it all happened before the husband was born, it's still gotta grate to think you could have been an Emperor, or Sultan in this case, only to have it taken away by the will of the dirty smelly peasants. Though a 2 bed apartment in NY with a bajillion dogs? I bet he smelled too.

Had to actually read TFA as I actually know an Afghan princess and thought it might be her from the headline. Either subby's reading comprehension skills suck or he somehow thinks the story is cooler with an Afghan princess instead of a Ottoman Empire Princess...

Medic Zero:Had to actually read TFA as I actually know an Afghan princess and thought it might be her from the headline. Either subby's reading comprehension skills suck or he somehow thinks the story is cooler with an Afghan princess instead of a Ottoman Empire Princess...

Well it's an understandable mistake. She is the niece of an Afghan king.

proteus_b:lohphat: IIRC if you are married or in a registered domestic partnership in NY you have secession rights to the lease upon the death of the partner who is on the lease.

Which is why these things can go on forever. Now she can just marry someone, who can marry someone, who can marry someone...

I thought we did away with royalty in the USA. Let her pay rent like anyone else.

I know of people who are living in Manhattan as 3rd or 4th generation paying less than $300/month for a two room walk up on the 3rd floor.

They get away with it due to how the laws are written.

Grandma rented it in the 40s, her daughter gets it after her, then her kid, etc.

This is very common. This is also why many apartments are in maintained spcrumbling shiatholes because the landlord can't make enough to maintain it properly.

At some point market forces need to come into play or you end up with the bizarro world of NY rent law and things like Airbnb allowing renters to make 10x as much as their rent by marketing a property they do not own.

NYC rent control law is pretty clear that you can't sublet for more than the controlled/subsidized rent rate or you're violating the terms of the lease and can get evicted not to mention the prohibion on rentals less than 30 days which makes you a hotel and you had better be paying the hotelier tax. Some buildings are pushing back on airbnb because it's turned their building not zoned for a hotel into one and strangers are traipsing through the building without authorization from the building owner or supe.

It's going to get interesting as landlords start flexing their muscles and kicking out lease terms violators so they can charge market rate for apartments they've been losing money on for decades in some cases.

lohphat:proteus_b: lohphat: IIRC if you are married or in a registered domestic partnership in NY you have secession rights to the lease upon the death of the partner who is on the lease.

Which is why these things can go on forever. Now she can just marry someone, who can marry someone, who can marry someone...

I thought we did away with royalty in the USA. Let her pay rent like anyone else.

I know of people who are living in Manhattan as 3rd or 4th generation paying less than $300/month for a two room walk up on the 3rd floor.

They get away with it due to how the laws are written.

Grandma rented it in the 40s, her daughter gets it after her, then her kid, etc.

This is very common.

This is NOT very common. There were over two million rent controlled units now there are less than 30,000. There are no new rent controlled apartments and they are dissapearing. Portraying it as the norm is the media equivalent of "shark attack" coverage in New York real estate media. It's absolute horseshiate but makes for good "outrage" press so it gets retold over and over and over.

brap:lohphat: proteus_b: lohphat: IIRC if you are married or in a registered domestic partnership in NY you have secession rights to the lease upon the death of the partner who is on the lease.

Which is why these things can go on forever. Now she can just marry someone, who can marry someone, who can marry someone...

I thought we did away with royalty in the USA. Let her pay rent like anyone else.

I know of people who are living in Manhattan as 3rd or 4th generation paying less than $300/month for a two room walk up on the 3rd floor.

They get away with it due to how the laws are written.

Grandma rented it in the 40s, her daughter gets it after her, then her kid, etc.

This is very common.

This is NOT very common. There were over two million rent controlled units now there are less than 30,000. There are no new rent controlled apartments and they are dissapearing. Portraying it as the norm is the media equivalent of "shark attack" coverage in New York real estate media. It's absolute horseshiate but makes for good "outrage" press so it gets retold over and over and over.

There shouldn't be *ANY* rent controlled apartments.

Rent control was instituted as a temporary measure during WWII. It should have completely ended not that long after. There is zero reason why any apartment that cost $300 to rent in 1944 should still be rented for that same amount in 2014, 70 years later.

Oh, and currently, over 60% of apartments in NYC are either "rent controlled" or "rent stabilized" (which limits the rent increases). The vast majority of them being "rent stabilized".

I live in a rent "stabilized" apartment. And rent increases have always outpaced the cost of living. But please preach to me about the nuances of New York City real estate. Rentals make up 3/4 of Manhattan homes and vacancy rates historically are at around 3 percent.

I don't know why I get into internet discussions about this stuff anyway, I always end up jabbering back and forth with some "free marketeer" guy that's probably typing from a survivalist bunker or a yurt made out of buckskin.

The Ottoman Empire--their comeuppance is still nowhere near satisfactorily proportionate.

Let us know when her landlord destroys her art collection, family history, medical records, empties her bank accounts, burns all of her material possessions, and enslaves her and her family for the rest of their lives.

Actually since her title is inherited from her Ottoman husband, and not her Afghani uncle, technically she is an Ottoman princess, so that sounds even more legit to me.

Came for this.

dittybopper:brap: lohphat: proteus_b: lohphat: IIRC if you are married or in a registered domestic partnership in NY you have secession rights to the lease upon the death of the partner who is on the lease.

Which is why these things can go on forever. Now she can just marry someone, who can marry someone, who can marry someone...

I thought we did away with royalty in the USA. Let her pay rent like anyone else.

I know of people who are living in Manhattan as 3rd or 4th generation paying less than $300/month for a two room walk up on the 3rd floor.

They get away with it due to how the laws are written.

Grandma rented it in the 40s, her daughter gets it after her, then her kid, etc.

This is very common.

This is NOT very common. There were over two million rent controlled units now there are less than 30,000. There are no new rent controlled apartments and they are dissapearing. Portraying it as the norm is the media equivalent of "shark attack" coverage in New York real estate media. It's absolute horseshiate but makes for good "outrage" press so it gets retold over and over and over.

There shouldn't be *ANY* rent controlled apartments.

Rent control was instituted as a temporary measure during WWII. It should have completely ended not that long after. There is zero reason why any apartment that cost $300 to rent in 1944 should still be rented for that same amount in 2014, 70 years later.

Oh, and currently, over 60% of apartments in NYC are either "rent controlled" or "rent stabilized" (which limits the rent increases). The vast majority of them being "rent stabilized".

Is the rent control written into the lease or written into the city law? I always assumed it was city law. Because if there are only 30k people left with rent controlled apartments, you'd think the majority would be financially incentivized to revoke that law.

brap:I live in a rent "stabilized" apartment. And rent increases have always outpaced the cost of living. But please preach to me about the nuances of New York City real estate. Rentals make up 3/4 of Manhattan homes and vacancy rates historically are at around 3 percent.

I don't know why I get into internet discussions about this stuff anyway, I always end up jabbering back and forth with some "free marketeer" guy that's probably typing from a survivalist bunker or a yurt made out of buckskin.

Actually, I live in a modest ranch-style house with about 2000 square feet of living space* sitting on half an acre of land in a nice suburban area, with a 20+ acre wooded area behind my house.

My mortgage, with insurance and taxes included, is probably about one third of what you pay in rent. If you live in a dinky studio apartment, maybe half. And in just 14 more years, I'll own it free and clear. The only costs I'll have at that point are insurance and taxes, and if I want to live dangerously, I don't have to pay for the insurance.

If I want to enjoy something in NYC, it's a mere 3 hour train or bus trip from where I'm sitting right now (4 hour trip from my actual home).

*We only use half of that for actual "living", the rest of it is a "walk-out" basement that is mostly empty space but that we could finish off if we needed to expand, without adding an addition to the house.

Rent control was instituted as a temporary measure during WWII. It should have completely ended not that long after. There is zero reason why any apartment that cost $300 to rent in 1944 should still be rented for that same amount in 2014, 70 years later.

Oh, and currently, over 60% of apartments in NYC are either "rent controlled" or "rent stabilized" (which limits the rent increases). The vast majority of them being "rent stabilized".

* Rent control in NYC started in 1920. It was a contentious issue until 1943, when WWII made greedy assholes simmer down and agree to what is now the longest lasting rent stabilization program in history. WWII didn't inspire rent control. Greedy landlords did.

* If it had ended, we would be back to a similar situation as 1942, arguing for rent control because the greedy have turned NYC into something horrific...I dunno, the Walled City of New London-Dubai-Kyo or something.

* The total number of rent-regulated housing in NYC in 1981 was 1,976,044. Of those, 952, 832 were rent-stabilized and 285,555 were rent controlled.

* The total number of rent regulated housing in NYC in 2011 was 1,025,214. Of those, 986,840 were rent-stabilized and 38,374 were rent controlled.

* If this woman's rent hasn't changed this entire time, that was the choice of her previous landlord, who could have been increasing it by 7.5% annually under NYC's rent control laws but decided not to.

nickerj1:Is the rent control written into the lease or written into the city law? I always assumed it was city law. Because if there are only 30k people left with rent controlled apartments, you'd think the majority would be financially incentivized to revoke that law.

It's city law.

As I understand it, when a tenant who leases a rent controlled apartment leaves or dies and no one with succession rights (like a spouse) occupies it, it is no longer rent controlled, and the rent can be increased to normal market levels.

But the program should have ended not long after WWII. In fact, it *DID* end, at the federal level: Federal rent control legislation was repealed in 1950.

It was a temporary war-time measure to stabilize costs and to prevent war profiteering at the expense of workers. It served no other purpose, and it should have ended in the immediate aftermath of WWII.

thamike:The Ottoman Empire--their comeuppance is still nowhere near satisfactorily proportionate.

Let us know when her landlord destroys her art collection, family history, medical records, empties her bank accounts, burns all of her material possessions, and enslaves her and her family for the rest of their lives.

She's Ottoman, not 13th century Christian or 16th century Spanish or 18th century British.

Dinki:thamike: The Ottoman Empire--their comeuppance is still nowhere near satisfactorily proportionate.

Let us know when her landlord destroys her art collection, family history, medical records, empties her bank accounts, burns all of her material possessions, and enslaves her and her family for the rest of their lives.

She's Ottoman, not 13th century Christian or 16th century Spanish or 18th century British.

thamike:Dinki: thamike: The Ottoman Empire--their comeuppance is still nowhere near satisfactorily proportionate.

Let us know when her landlord destroys her art collection, family history, medical records, empties her bank accounts, burns all of her material possessions, and enslaves her and her family for the rest of their lives.

She's Ottoman, not 13th century Christian or 16th century Spanish or 18th century British.

And?

Me thinks somebody enjoys the bliss of ignorance and wants the world to know. Ottomans were mean MotherFarkers